2+ Year Member

Be the best student/applicant you can be. It doesn't really matter what school you're at unless you are mediocre.

For instance at SJSU, the premed advisors will tell you that the best students that come out of there and go to medical school do very well. The less than stellar applicants do not get in. I would focus on going to school where you are comfortable and where you will thrive. It is hard to get personal, quality LORs at a huge super competitive school.

2+ Year Member

Oh, just wanted to add to be proud of your education at a Cal State and relay this during your secondaries and your interviews. I really enjoyed having a small class size and knowing my teachers well.

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I went to a cal state, and now work with a lot of UC Berkeley grads, and their lectures were usually 400+ people with labs taught by TAs, whereas my lectures were 20-40 people with labs taught by professors. You definitely get more one on one time, and therefore better letters of rec!

Moderator Emeritus10+ Year Member

I sure hope thats a joke, because I didn't see any emoticons to indicate otherwise. UC Davis and the rest of the UC schools are not part of the Cal State Univeristy (CSU) system. Since you go to UCD, I would hope that you know which school system it falls under.

As for the OP, doing well at any accredited university should be fine. A 4.0 from SJSU will look better than a 3.5 from UCB given the major was the same. I have known physicians who came from CSUS, and SJSU and an undergrad, who ended up doing their residency at UC Davis Medical Center. I haven't met a UCD med student who came from a Cal State though, however that doesn't mean anything, just means I haven't met them yet.

5+ Year Member

Dood... are you serious? Either you're dissing on the Cal State system in which case I say go f--- yourself or you are bashing on your own school in which case I have no clue as to why you would downgrade your school.

Hey I am applying to med school next year. I go to cal state Long Beach, do they look a lot at the under grad school you went to. i am worried that this will not make me look good, is this true??

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Hey dude. I went to Chico State and I would say that in terms of undergrad recognition it didn't help me. I think this was especially an issue with the UC's. But the education I received was top notch and played a major roll in my acceptance at Wake Forest. You can't change your undergrad so try to make yourself the best applicant possible.

10+ Year Member

Hey dude. I went to Chico State and I would say that in terms of undergrad recognition it didn't help me. I think this was especially an issue with the UC's. But the education I received was top notch and played a major roll in my acceptance at Wake Forest. You can't change your undergrad so try to make yourself the best applicant possible.

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No offense, but were your stats UC good? The Dean of Admissions from UCD SoM said that a good gpa and high MCAT outweigh the supposed difference in prestige between the CSUs and UCs.

I think the UCs are awesome when it comes to research. Researchers, however, don't make good teachers! My MCD Bio 40 teacher at UCLA even admitted that he sucked as a teacher .

Class of 2015!

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10+ Year Member

hey csu people, i'm not in this application cycle...but i was two cycles ago...i'm entering m2.

anyway, i went to fresno state, majored in chemistry...and i loved it enough to go after a phd at cornell, changed my mind about chemistry & academics/industry, simultaneously became very fascinated by medicine, and ended up at hms.

fresno state was affordable and close to home, where i worked in the summertime and weekends.

i wasn't a typical applicant because of my graduate work (i finished the phd), but i wouldn't have made it without my local csu!

10+ Year Member

hey csu people, i'm not in this application cycle...but i was two cycles ago...i'm entering m2.

anyway, i went to fresno state, majored in chemistry...and i loved it enough to go after a phd at cornell, changed my mind about chemistry & academics/industry, simultaneously became very fascinated by medicine, and ended up at hms.

fresno state was affordable and close to home, where i worked in the summertime and weekends.

i wasn't a typical applicant because of my graduate work (i finished the phd), but i wouldn't have made it without my local csu!

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Sweet! The CSUs aren't bad at all, if you're a serious student!

Class of 2015!

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2+ Year Member

after high school i was a little worried about going to CSUS because it was a CSU. i didnt get accepted to Davis so now i go to a CC (the science teachers here are HARD) so i can transfer to davis. but now i dont think i even want to go to davis anymore, maybe CSUS. lol but anyways, now that ive finished my first year, i realized that it doesnt really matter what school you go to, just as long as you have good teachers and master the materials in the classes u take. oh and just get good grades.

10+ Year Member

after high school i was a little worried about going to CSUS because it was a CSU. i didnt get accepted to Davis so now i go to a CC (the science teachers here are HARD) so i can transfer to davis. but now i dont think i even want to go to davis anymore, maybe CSUS. lol but anyways, now that ive finished my first year, i realized that it doesnt really matter what school you go to, just as long as you have good teachers and master the materials in the classes u take. oh and just get good grades.

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CC science teachers tend to be very hard in california. Too bad the east coast doesn't acknowledge this.

10+ Year Member

Yeah, I took Biology I and II at a CC. They were good classes, though not as "lab friendly" as CSU and UC biology classes. That is, the CCs are somewhat lacking when it comes to lab supplies, etc. (That was the case at my CC at least.)

Class of 2015!

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Moderator Emeritus10+ Year Member

Yeah, I took Biology I and II at a CC. They were good classes, though not as "lab friendly" as CSU and UC biology classes. That is, the CCs are somewhat lacking when it comes to lab supplies, etc. (That was the case at my CC at least.)

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Probably varies from CC to CC. On my end, our classes and labs were just as good or sometimes better than those that I saw and experienced at UCD. The labs were well stocked for the lower division classes, and were taught by the professor too (our instructors had PhD's at my CC). But what is most important are the concepts that you learn, and bring to the CSU or UC.

Anyway back to the main topic. As stated nothing wrong with CSU aslong as you do well. The only drawbacks that I can think of in terms of going to a CSU would be the limited options for things such as access to biomedical research and resources. For instance, here at UCD, I can take our med school courses, have an easier time networking with physicians to do research, and so forth. Ultimately this is trivial, since there are plenty of other extracurriculars out there that helps one get into med school. However it is convenient to have these options available.

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